Book flights now for next Easter

[MELSMICE]

If you are planning on going to WDW over next Easter I suggest booking flights now. We are from the Northeast (Buffalo, NY) & I can't even explain the trouble we had booking flights this year.

We go for 2 weeks during peak season, so I know flights book fast & are more expensive, however, they were booked the minute they were released - in some cases, before they were released to the public, which is 330 days ahead of time.

They were held by groups (travel agents I'm told). We wanted to leave Friday evening & return 2 weeks later on a Saturday afternoon. If we wanted to pay between $500 - $600 a person that was fine. It was a nightmare. I was on the Internet for 2 days, as was my brother & my sister, who just happens to be a travel agent - no luck with what we wanted.

We could get in Friday at midnight & return on a 6:15 a.m. flight - YIKES.

Anyway, after a lot of phone calls, a lot of time on the Internet & a lot of aggravation we finally are close to what we wanted, but paying more than we had planned.

I guess my point is, if you want to go during the peak Spring season, BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS NOW - DON'T WAIT - THEY WILL ONLY BE MORE EXPENSIVE!!!

& good luck!!!

 

[poohbear2]

How much did you end up paying? What airlines did you go with? Departure city? Did you book on-line or on the phone?
Sorry so many questions. Curious. Thanks!

 

[pbhunt]

We are looking for flights leaving April 23 and returning May 4, 2003. We can't even check them online yet because of the 330 day rule. I am a little concerned by your post and may end up having to go with a TA. What airline did you book with?

 

[MELSMICE]

poohbear2 & pbhunt -

We ended up booking with Delta on-line (right on their own web-site - not Orbitz or Travelocity)

Leaving from Buffalo - stopping in Atlanta. Same stop on the return.

Cost - $273 - much more than I wanted to pay, but from my confirmation it looks like this includes tax. So I figure that's about $225 - $230 - still more than I'd like but I was getting desparate!

My sister is a TA & the best she could get us was $263 on Delta, not including tax & we had to go through Cinci on a 50-seater. Would have gotten there at midnight also. No one in my party wanted to do that.

Travelocity had flights for $210 on USAir but getting in at midnight & returning on a 6 a.m. No one wanted to do that either. They figure if we are going on vacation we should enjoy it, not have to check in at 2 a.m. & get up at 3 a.m. to come home - WHATEVER! With the way USAir is going I'm glad we didn't book those.

I'd keep checking both by phone & on-line with official web-sites & the discount sites.

Good luck to you both!!

 

[DebbieB]

I think it's a whole new game with airline tickets. It used to be you could get the lowest price by booking as soon as they came out. Now they are bringing the popular flights out at high prices and lowering them later if they are not selling. For example, I checked USAir for early December in January. Morning flight down, Afternoon flight back. They were over $300 per person. Currently $195. I went through the same thing for our flights last month. At one point the flights I wanted were over $700 per person, then in February dropped to $183 for the same flights and I booked it. It makes it really hard to decide what to do.

 

[disnurse]

we always go over easter and believe me book now. we paid 275 last year and by the time travel neared it was 800 for crummy flights. These flights book fast so the prices only go higher. Try expedia for other ideas of going rates

 

[poohbear2]

Well I blinked. Went and purchased airfare for Easter weekend at Delta for 316 each including tax. I need to go and I am fearful of waiting. I bought on Sunday morning and checked again in the afternoon and they went up 50 each! Crazy.
Oh well, I can always get vouchers if the price goes way down, right?